Kathleen van Bergen, David Filner, Bonnie Thayer, Jessica Wozniak and all the staff of Artis—Naples must be relishing the incredible success of Community Day.

It's just been a couple of weeks since this great organization presented concerts for 3,500 third-graders in cooperation with Collier County Public Schools (kudos to Skip Pardee). The finale of Community Day brought together remarkable cooperation with the Naples Ballet and the Naples Philharmonic.

The performance was led and narrated by Dracula, in the person of Maestro Radu Paponiu. Members of The Phil, always in terrific form, were wearing outstanding costumes. Together with the fantastic Naples Ballet, with leadership and choreography of Christophe Maravel, these super-talented and excellently trained youngsters danced the story of witches, innocent girls, an outstanding black cat, leaping hunters and Halloween sprang to life in front of a costumed audience of all ages who clapped, shrieked and laughed as the tale unfolded.

Costumes, set and props of the ballet were delightful. It was such fun hearing this creative story which brought us music by Mussorgsky, Grieg, Gounod, Stravinsky, etc. At the end, there was a huge standing ovation. Well deserved!

How lucky we are to have arts and education working hand in hand in this community.

Thank you, Artis—Naples, Naples Ballet and CCPS. Good folks of Naples, run, don't walk to the next performance.

Joy Davidson, Naples

Focus on underlying issues

According to headlines in a recent edition of The Washington Post, the perpetrator of the fatal truck attack in New York prepared for weeks to carry out his orders from ISIS. This headline is somewhat misleading.

According to the Post’s story, the perpetrator’s "preparation" consisted of the following: He convinced himself a terrorist attack was a good idea; near his home in New Jersey, he rented a truck from a big-box home store; he took with him a pellet gun and a paintball gun, neither of which he is reported to have used in the attack, and he ran the truck at high speed through a crowd on a bike trail in lower Manhattan. Had he wanted to be more convincing in his planning abilities, he might have easily obtained an assault weapon with a bump stock and inflicted carnage on the level of that in Las Vegas early last month.

In other words, the attacker got an idea from a website that suggested vehicles be used as weapons (no big insight there — vehicles, from airplanes on 9/11 to trucks in subsequent European attacks, were employed as weapons) and acted on it, with no apparent direct intervention from ISIS nor any of its agents.

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Florida Voices tells the stories of everyday Floridians, examining what issues matter most to them in the Sunshine State.

It seems to me that if we want to address underlying issues rather than focusing on guessing which immigrant(s) might pose an imminent danger, we might begin to figure out why someone who's lived peacefully in the U.S. since 2010 became both radicalized enough and energized (i.e., crazy) enough to perpetrate the crime and how to fix that. Then we might be headed toward a solution.

David Fetzer, Naples

Trump more productive than predecessor

In a recent column, Jay Ambrose of Tribune News Service outlined everything the Republicans voted for in the election. It just so happened that President Donald Trump won. Actually, Trump didn't win. Hillary Clinton and her ally, former President Barack Obama, lost.

The voters had enough of overspending, Obamacare, doing whatever he wanted by sidestepping Congress. He set this country back during his eight years in office.

People knew who Trump was. Vulgar, deceitful and having many more degrading liabilities, he was better than the alternative. So far he has done more in 10 months than his predecessor.

Who knows what the future has in store. The public should give him a chance. If he fails, he will out in three and a half years.

George Wildey, Naples

Republican tax reform a hoax

The Republican tax reform blueprint is a disaster for middle-income Americans and the poor while being a tax giveaway to the rich and corporations.

Cutting the highest corporate tax to 20 percent, promising that it would increase salaries by a minimum of $4,000, is a hoax. How does the GOP know that the corporate profits will go to the employees and not to the shareholders and bigger bonuses to the CEOs? The idea of trickle-down economics has not worked before. In reality, pressure from the GOP high-value donors is playing out.

Only estates of single individuals over $5.5 million pay any inheritance tax. About 0.2 percent of taxpayers fall above this exemption, probably including the Trump family. The GOP logic of making all inheritance taxes disappear is that it amounts to taxing something that has already been taxed when in reality the deceased paid the tax and not their heirs.

However, the GOP blueprint does not hesitate to remove personal deduction of state and local taxes, the same logic of taxing amounts already paid notwithstanding. And personal exemptions may go away. With this, even a higher standard deduction of $12,000 for a single person and a three-tier tax bracket will increase the tax burden of many middle-income taxpayers.

To speed up this tax overhaul that increases the deficit by up to $1.5 trillion over a decade, the Senate adopted a fiscal 2018 budget resolution, amended at the eleventh hour to avoid a conference committee. And guess what? Medicare and Medicaid are on the chopping block. Is that why Senate Republicans passed the budget amendment without any prior notice or a Congressional Budget Office score?

Maitri Banerjee, Bonita Springs

Subsidize housing

Southwest Florida is one of the most desirable places in the United States to live for those who can afford it.

No one moves north to retire.

Baby boomers, ages 50 to 65, of which there are hundreds of thousands, have discovered Naples and they increase the price of all housing.

I own a lot of low-income housing in Collier County that I purchased between 1996 and 2002. I never paid more than $32,000 per unit. My rents are slightly below the market rate (to attract and keep the best tenants) and yet have doubled since 1998.

It gets worse for the present buyer. I could sell any property for triple what I paid for it. It is the law of supply and demand.

Building the cheapest new apartments (minimum standard, high density) would cost $125 per square foot. For a 1,000-square-foot apartment, that's $125,000. The rent would have to be at least $1,200, plus water, electric and cable, for about $1,500 per month total cost. The household income would have to be at least $4,000 per month. Affordable?

Nothing in the present county-proposed affordable housing plan will change this stated reality. The only solution is taxpayer dollars directly subsidizing rent, like the federal Section 8 program, or something like a federal mortgage of 40-year amortization and 2 percent interest.

Someone must pay/subsidize.

Henry Holzkamper, Bonita Springs

Greenway is therapeutic

The Gordon River Greenway is a peaceful walking and bike-riding path enjoyed from morning to evening by men, women, families, teens, children and pets. It is a treasured gift to our Naples community.

Those of us who use it are grateful for this local, therapeutic escape into nature.

Dorothy S. Kuzneski, Naples

Don’t send accused murderer to Guantanamo

Regarding this debate as to where the accused murderer Sayfullo Saipov, who ran down innocent people in New York as an act of terror, should go: He should not go to Guantanamo. He should have gone to the morgue.

Congratulations to all the first responders in this incident. Great job.

Terry McGrath, Naples

Implement Russian sanctions now

On Aug. 2, President Donald Trump reluctantly signed into law increased sanctions against Russia for interfering with the U.S. elections. It also limited the ability of the president to unilaterally lift sanctions. He signed the bill only after it became clear that Congress had sufficient votes to override his veto. The bill was passed in the House 419-3 and the Senate 98-2.

We are now in November and more than three months have passed and there has not been implementation of the sanctions, nor any guidelines or detail of the effective date of implementation. The president did make a statement at the signing that he believed certain parts were unconstitutional but signed it anyway. Apparently, since the signing, he has made a unilateral determination that he has the right to delay or alternatively completely disregard the law altogether. The president seems to believe that his election as president gives him the right to pursue his personal views, much like a dictatorship seen in only some Third World countries.

While some congressmen have made inquiries as to why the sanctions have not been implemented, there has not been a general outcry by Congress for implementation of this sanction bill. At some point, the public will have to insist that both Democrats and Republicans put aside partisan politics and put country first.

Members of Congress need to demand that the sanction law be implemented and publicly set forth their concern for the president's inaction on this bill. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It is a country issue.

Charles Mehler, Naples

Nothing changes

Naples City Council members gave final OK to big pay raises for future council members while Hurricane Irma's aftermath extended power outages and contaminated tap water for residents.

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

Bruce Allen, Naples

Snowbirds should be welcomed

I just finished reading the letter from Laurence Jacks of Estero. He seems very critical of the snowbirds. He must not understand the importance of them.

Without them, something like 70 percent of the eating places, motels, hotels, gas stations and other businesses would close, thus laying off all the employees. There are very few jobs available in this area other than farm work. Naples would still be Tin City and not much more. The snowbirds bring the green to our economy. Jacks doesn't understand how the economy works.

And as far as the Northerners not using their turn signals, I see that as a rather insulting statement.

Don Brown, Naples

Stick it to Naples

Well, Naples City Council wants a pay raise and wants Collier County to pay for it.

What a joke: $1.5 million for county residents to park at the beach and what do we get in return and what is it for? Just to fill their pockets and spend on what, more parking police? This is nothing except b.s. and another way to try to stick it to the county.

Council members don't think about the revenue that we generate when we take our families to the beach, the stores, restaurants and gas stations. Tell that to the shop owners when summer gets here and they are hoping someone walks through the door and then want us to go downtown to get our stickers.

The mayor was a total embarrassment during the hurricane. He was a little long in the tooth and should not be allowed to speak in public, especially on national TV.

I think our county commissioners should be thinking of ways to stick it to them instead of just sitting on their hands. Don't take the city’s better than thou and we have what they want attitude.

It’s America, so let's look at the big picture. We do not need our taxes increased just to park at the beach that the tourist taxes are paying for. Instead of wasting your time and money hiring all these firms to look at ways to get pay raises to benefit your own pockets, look at helping people who are in need and fix problems with your neighborhoods and don't always focus on the rich and famous.